MARY POPPINS – 50th Anniversary Edition – The Blu Review

In my opinion, kid’s movies are among the best ever made but are often over-looked because they usually lack tragic drama or passionate physical romances, but that’s what makes them great. They are a fantasy escape into a world we’ve never seen but we all wish we had. And that’s what MARY POPPINS did so brilliantly in 1964 and I don’t think that anyone anywhere can honestly say that they didn’t yearn for Mary to fly to their doorstep and teach them magic when they were little.

With expert flair, Walt Disney made a spirited, visually captivating and touching adaptation from the P.L. Travers books and it was the first film from his studio to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Featuring a knockout, Oscar-winning performance of prim, proper British beauty and intelligence by Julie Andrews, MARY POPPINS, Disney studios most expensive film up to that time, still has so much to offer. Dick Van Dyke’s performance is a marvel of energy and charm, despite the moments when his Cockney accent sounds less than natural. David Tomlinson’s performance as Mr. Banks deserves special notice, I think. Mr. Banks’ moments of snobbery, and his later awakening to his family’s needs, add humanizing elements to the film that keep it from being too sugary and sentimental. And the score by the Sherman brothers (Robert and Richard) is a masterpiece, probably the film’s greatest single achievement.”Chim Chim Chiree,” won the Oscar for best song, and there are so many other great ones like “Supercali…” and “Feed The Birds” and “Step In Time……but every single song, even “Sister Suffragette,” is a toe-tapper.

Now, in honor of both its 50th anniversary and the arrival of Disney’s SAVING MR. BANKS, a new film about the making of MARY POPPINS, comes a new 50th Anniversary Blu-ray. They’ve had a 40th anniversary DVD and a 45th anniversary DVD but this is the first time MARY POPPINS has been presented in hi-def and the results are a mixed bag. Most of the movie, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, has a could-have-been-made-yesterday look, with astounding clarity and fine details throughout all of the scenes shot in the studio. It’s when the images are composited with effects shots and animation (more of this than I remember) that the quality degrades quite noticeably as the dated special effects look grainy and soft in 1080p. MARY POPPINS has a very nice audio track with a DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack that features a surprisingly active surround sound experience for a 50-year old movie. The dialogue is crisp, and more importantly, the singing fills the room with great clarity.

The MARY POPPINS 50th Anniversary Blu-ray is loaded with extras. Some are new to this edition but many are ported over from previous ones:

Audio Commentary with actors Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Karen Dotrice as well as composers Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman (who died in March 2012). Though the commentaries were obviously recorded individually, they’re nicely edited and mostly scene specific. There are also some old recordings of Walt Disney, director Robert Stevenson, and conductor/music supervisor Irwin Kostal included as well. Overall a very informative and educational track filled with technical data and interesting anecdotes.

Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins. This 50-minute ‘making of’ featurette mixes interviews, archival footage, and clips from the film. Subjects include Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, costume designer Tony Walton, special effects artist Peter Ellenshaw, cameraman Bob Broughton and many more.

Becoming Mr. Sherman runs 14 minutes and features actor Jason Schwartzman, who plays Richard Sherman in SAVING MR. BANKS sitting down to talk ‘Mary Poppins’ with the man he portrays in the new film. A nice extra, it features some rare demo recordings of some of the famous songs.

Mary-Oke Sing along Karaoke-style to “Spoonful of Sugar”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Step in Time”, and “Chim Chim Cher-ee”. Disney does this a lot to their musicals, which is nice.

Deleted Song – “Chimpanzoo” – a 40-second song by the Sherman Bros. that did not make the final cut is presented with Richard Sherman performing the tune over storyboard art.

A Magical Musical Reunion runs 17 minutes and finds Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Richard Sherman gathered around a piano talking. They discuss their remembrances of the film and their impressions of Walt Disney.

“Step In Time” Musical Number from Mary Poppins On Broadway runs 8 minutes

The Cat That Looked at a King is a 2004 is a 10-minute live-action film with animation that features Julie Andrews and the voices of Tracey Ullman, David Ogden Stiers, and Sarah Ferguson (the Duchess of York)

Dick Van Dyke Make-up Test – a one-minute make-up test for Dick Van Dyke as the aged Mr. Dawes that is narrated by the actor.

Disney Song Selection – allows the viewer to jump directly to eight separate songs in the film with subtitled lyrics.

The Gala World Premiere – “The Red Carpet” runs 18 minutes and “The Party” runs six. The first shows the events in front of the theater at the Hollywood debut of MARY POPPINS, while the latter shows photos from a subsequent gathering of the film’s principals.

Movie Magic – is a 7-minute look at the film’s special effects.

Deconstruction of a Scene runs 21 minutes and breaks down two musical numbers: “Jolly Holiday” and “Step In Time”. The various elements are shown separately and blended together.

Trailers – for JUNGLE BOOK and SAVING MR. BANKS (of course)

Sneak Peeks – promos for The Lion King stage production, and The Pirate Fairy.

And finally, the MARY POPPINS 50th Anniversary Blu-ray includes a DVD version of the film as well.

MARY POPPINS is a classic that will always live in the hearts of anyone who has seen it and this 50th Anniversary Blu-ray is its most complete and attractive consumer incarnation to date. A highly recommended purchase!